Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Thramzorean 11-25-04, 09:22 AM	You remember what it was like sooo long ago, well maybe not so long ago, that every man, woman and their dog had an opinion on Eberron? Those endless love/hate threads about how bad or wonderful Eberron was before it was even released? The outpouring of unalterable fact as seen through one eye that greeted the release of the Eberron campaign book? I'm actually interested in people's thoughts now everyone's had a run out out, seen and played Eberron for real la de dah. For myself it's very simple, the more I have to do with Eberron the more I like it. I was not an instant convert, the obvious stuff I liked, there was plenty I was so so about. But it sure grows on you...
Bluebrush 11-25-04, 09:34 AM	Well, I was somewhat skeptical of the setting search idea, and the initial vague rumours weren't too exciting. (Dinosaurs. Trains. Bleh, nothing a hombrew game doesn't have.) But later, the more I heard about it the more I liked it. Now it's released, I love it. ^_^
MarkB 11-25-04, 09:56 AM	I think it's excellent. All the things I didn't think were a good idea on first glance (magic as technology, dragonmarks, warforged) have turned out to be entirely different than they were presented in early publicity and word-of-mouth, and excellent, valued parts of the setting. Generally, the setting is everything I'd have liked to make of a homebrew setting, only better: * Magic-as-industry: Once you realise that it's not magic-as-technology, just a logical view of how a world with D&D's default magic levels should work, it all makes perfect sense. * Nations, not reflections: I hadn't realised just how refreshing a setting free of "these are the virtual-American-Indians, these are the virtual-far-eastern people, and over here is virtual-medieval-England" stereotypes would be until I played it. Each nation in the setting has its own national identity, not a borrowed one. * Dragonmarked Houses: I disliked the idea of dragonmarks on sight - but once you realise that they're not just (or even) a way to give characters free superpowers, but the basis for an entire economic system of Great Trading Houses, it's hard to imagine the setting without them. With those features, plus its general tone and feel, the setting has so far met and exceeded all my expectations.
Ohtar Turinson 11-25-04, 10:13 AM	I like the feel behind the whole thing, the low level in PC character classes, and the nature of evil in Eberron. But the best part is the way that its managed to replicate the political atmosphere of Europe prior to World War II. That's something that seems likely to happen, but which no other setting seemed to satisfactorily cover.
polt 11-25-04, 10:15 AM	I didn't really know anything about Eberron when i first looked at it. I was about to make my own world, and while i was working on the pantheon a guy talked to me about Eberron over messenger. Later when he showed me the book, i looked at the pantheon, and then i looked at mine. Wow, almost exactly the same base idea. "Gotta read more of this" i thought, and after about 10 minutes i deleted all that i had created my self, and Eberron had me. I love this setting.
DMSkippy099 11-25-04, 11:19 AM	After the release of 3.5 I was very disillusioned by dnd. I have ever 3.0 book, and was not looking forward to upgrading. I actually stopped playing for about 6 months. I received one of those gamespy e-mails talking about dnd online; thinking that it was going to be my only way to play dnd I checked it out. I saw that it was set in Eberron, and didn't think much of it. What changed my mind was looking at the conceptual art for the game! Something just clicked in my brain.....I had to know more about this world! I went right to Amazon, and ordered the book thinking that I could use it to learn about the world I would be playing in online. I just didn't have any expectations which in retrospect, was what made me so pleasantly surprised! I got the book a few days later, and it just blew my mind! As someone said previously, all of my attempts at home brew worlds had so many of the elements I saw presented in this book that it just clicked; This is the world I have always wanted to be playing DnD in! Eberron did what I had always set out to do when creating a world, but obviously did it soooooo much better....but the core concept I had wanted were there! The only thing I am not really into in this setting is the whole Inspired, quori, Kalashtar thing. I think after reading the more detailed information in coming products that may change, but I don't know. I have never really been into pcsionics, and I just can't seem to get the right feel for what the dreaming dark struggle is all about, and how it relates to khorvair. The beautiful thing about it though, is that the way they are designed and written, you can totally leave them out without any consequence to the game! That is good game design if you ask me. :twocents: Skippy
Sarlax 11-25-04, 01:03 PM	When Eberron was first being promoted, I reflected back to the setting search and wondered, "Wasn't this supposed to be at least something like the other settings? Same but different?" The promotions made much of Eberron look absurd. Magic trains, robots riding dinosaurs in space, psionic computers, etc. Granted, those weren't the actual selling points (mostly), but that's the feeling that various things left me with. It was Dragon Magazine that turned me. The shifter preview. The artificer preview. Warforged. Magewrights. The Wizards sight was turning me off to the whole thing, but seeing substantive content from the book worked.
Neofish 11-25-04, 01:03 PM	I hate It.!!! Just Kidd'in, actually I love Eberron, I love that each nation has rich detail and history. Ah, and Warforged, Warforgrd, Warforged, if thier has been any race which has inspired me it's the Warforged, I love it all....
DolArrah 11-25-04, 01:10 PM	When I bought the book, I hated it, probably because I hadn't read enough of it. I also, since I only skimmed it the first, did not understand it. Bound elementals, shards, trains, etc. I read it a second time and loved it. There were still some things I didn't like, like the magic as technology, but It was fine. Now, I even like the idea of trains and planes (airships) and "pay phones" (House Sivis). Peace, Dol Arrah
Joni-san 11-25-04, 01:16 PM	I also love it :) In the beginning I was on the fence of the issue. The first things I saw didn't show that much or were quite badly done (the "this report must be in-accurate" kind) and I decided that letting ones emotions get the best of oneself would be unwise. Later on when Keith started posting and Johnny's site got a good amount of quotes I liked what I saw. Then the Forums were started and we started discussing Eberron. After that the Eb. CS came and we jumped with joy :D And here we are :)
WynnHuntr2 11-25-04, 05:11 PM	It rekindled my faith for D&D. I played Darksun a buttload back in high school and after words got into a homebrew game with a local hobby shop DM, after that because of his bias towards his kids I drifted away from the whole system. Then came 3.0 I was amazed that they had learned how to count past 2, kinda like Streetfighter in the arcades, so I picked it up, played a tiny bit and got really p1ssed when I heard about 3.5. Boycot. Dragon magazine. Hmmm maybe I should check this new setting out, not a boxset but... Eberron for life, it helps to look back though and appreciate what has come before, and then Mod it so it works in the new world. :)
Sabre_Spell_Blader 11-25-04, 05:45 PM	Along with Dark Sun it is my favorite setting ever. It finally gives D&D a solid setting for psionics. And warforged, how cool can you get? Eberron Forever, Sabre
The White Sorcerer 11-25-04, 07:11 PM	When I first heard about Eberron, my reaction was "Meh". I mean, what kind of a name for a setting is Eberron? All the other settings I had heard of had cool names like Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Ravenloft. Besides, I already had Forgotten Realms, why should I bother with Eberron? The summer of 2003 came and along with it came RoPeCon X. The guest of honor was Jonathan Tweet (one of the coolest guys in the world, I even got to play a game with him). He had all this cool D&D stuff with him, including (but not limited to): The D&D3.5 poster, free miniatures, and a little blue leaflet. I picked up one of those little blue leaflets just for the heck of it. Several days (or was it weeks, can't remember) I remembered that little blue leaflet. On the cover was the word Eberron. I read the thing. Halflings riding on dinosaurs. :w00t: The lightning rail. :clap: The airship. :ayyyy!: And Sharn. :love: :bow: :cloud9: I was sold. I became one of the most passionate defenders of the setting. I became one of the first people in the world to own the book (it was released a "bit" early here). I got in on the ground floor, and I plan to ride the Eberron Elevator to the very end.
Xaean 11-25-04, 08:07 PM	Quite the same for me: I was rather scpetical and thought it to be a setting only powergamers would like. But when I read about the artificer, the master inquisitive and the extreme explorer, my opinion changed for the better and when I read about the gatekeepers, I started to truely love this world. I also like the idea of magic taking the role that technology has in our world. I like campaigns focusing on intrigue and mystery rather than battle and the fact that races are not bound to certain alignments (orc paladins... :) ). A world is much more interessting, when the roles of heroes and villains are not always clear, when it's not always the good guy wearing silver armor vs the bad guy wearing black one.
Edymnion 11-25-04, 08:23 PM	Let me put it this way. I'm waiting for the liscense plate on my car to run out so I can get a vanity tag that reads "EBERRON". Soon as I get it, I'll take a picture and post it up for everybody. I'm sure Keith will get a kick out of it :)
Master of shaarat'khesh 11-25-04, 09:32 PM	I was skeptical but very intrigued. I've been playing and DMing for over 15 years and been with Forgotten Realms since it's introduction. I have seen alot come down the pike and wasted untold fortunes on hyped settings that promised to be the next revolution in role play games. I have been very burned out on FR. The spark was gone and I generally felt a "been there done that" attitude everytime I started to write up an FR campaign. Needless to say I was really hoping that Eberron would be good. I was enormously elated after I began reading the ECS. I kept an open mind and I was suprised to see a setting that is so much how I tried to make FR back in the day but just couldn't make it, make sense. I mean imagine it, a setting designed so that your characters are the heroes? A setting designed with the idea of action and roleplay? Where PC's are the epic legends that tales are told about?! Why, who would buy that???:) Well I for one and many other who longed to find that spark from a D&D setting. I love this setting. It's everything I have been looking for. It is very well done. It seems very well thought out and makes sense. From the history to the Gods it seems very well put together. Now, my FR books are dusty and wasting away and my ECS is almost worn out, so much so I am requesting another (home copy) for Christmas. And without sounding like too much of a suck-up, and maybe it's the all the turkey talkin' but, I really appreciate everyone on the Eberron boards. I think it's great that Mr. Baker helps us and shares his insight, and also that everyone here seems a little friendlier and eager to help out and discuss topics without the critisizing and belittling I've seen on other boards. It's great to read the imaginative ideas and see that I'm not the only one that has found that spark. Thanks to all! :)
Korhal IV 11-25-04, 09:34 PM	Well, I think I'll be quite a contrast to the previous posters. My initial enthusiasm has cooled somewhat from when I first read the ECS. When I got that thing, I also got Unearthed Arcana, which, you know, is one of the good rulesbooks. UA seemed like total dreck in comparison - I read some Eberron, then a little UA, then put UA on the shelf for literal months. :D Nowadays I'm a bit more temperate in my enjoyment, but obviously I'm still hanging around here, running my new game in Eberron (a mage-phobic player is now taking baby steps into non-martial classes by getting an artificer PC, yay!), etc., etc. Mostly it's because I didn't like Sharn all that much but all the new products revolve around it (and I don't like making my own modules since the last time I did badly on one). Sharn's Waterdeep with flying carpets, basically, it's a metagame focus WotC pushed on Eberron. Read the interviews, that's a pretty accurate description. Still, I bought the Eberron book, so I guess my whining counts for squat. :rolleyes: REALLY waiting for next year's stuff!
Thramzorean 11-26-04, 04:55 AM	Hmm... I would agree with you about waiting for the next batch of suppliments before making any final conclusion Korhal IV. There's still plenty of meat needing to be put on the bones. However I think what got me positive was how suprisingly robust the fundamentals are of the setting. It has a bit of everything for most people, in a way that doesn't need to upset those who the extra bits don't suit. By that I mean it can be a simple setting to play for beginner types, or include a cosmology and planar setup that can be as complex and in-depth as your most fervent diehard could wish. It includes psionics for psycho's like myself, or as noted above, psionics can be dropped altogether. There can be enough technology for the techo's without spoiling the basic feel of D&D fantasy. Along with the true gems of the setting, the Gatekeepers, the low power balance, the racial mix and philisophical tone, it is a very solid product. There are still of plenty of gaping holes, for all the discussion, reference and importance of Khyber there's little crunch. The Lords of Dust are about as real as wind blown particles. And there are plenty of things that will annoy somebody, my own personal bugbear, besides the ridiculous timeline, is this completely inane continual reference to how playing Eberron is different, it is 'cinematic' and like 'pulp fiction'. Which to personally is total garbage/marketing waffle... the setting is as good and as the DM plays it, and that applies to any setting. But the bottom line for me is that I enjoy the setting very much, more than I expected to given the good settings that have been and gone (sob, Al-Qadim RIP)
Brastan 11-26-04, 05:33 AM	I dove in head first, Greatsword of Zeal swinging, the armored plates that composed my body deflecting the Flames of battle. Emerging from that early conflict I find that I have been tempered and look forward to the future were we shall all exist in everlasting peace. The first time I saw Eberron was in that first article in Dragon Magazine ( two pages or less I think). It had a brief description of the setting search, the basic premises, and some concept art. Sold! I'd been running generic D&D / minor home-brew since I started playing the game back near the start of 2nd Ed. I was confused by Grayhawk and overwhelmed by FR. The others of my gaming group had a setting that they related to, either homebrewed or pre-published. The first few articles made me feel that Eberron fitted my DMing style. Unlike others I was not offend to see Halflings riding Dinosaurs, it just confirmed that it would offer new perspectives how traditional D&D was going to be reinterpreted. I payed little attention to the new races aside from the Warforged. What got me really hooked was the Last War. Before the release it was an unknown except that it had change the world and ended in a major catastrophe. I envisioned a world shattered, just beginning to rebuild. Were what had been the norm was gone whipped way by war. Well it did not turn out to be that shattered or that catastrophic but I'm still enjoying the setting. I have yet to acutely make a cohesive story line and have been letting players free adventure while we explore what the setting has to offer. It was clear from the start that this setting is not for everyone, just as Grayhawk and FR were not for me. I take pride in being one the foot troops at the start of the settings launch. Although less zealous I still enjoy the setting. I have faith that the setting will maintain the quality and vision that got me interested in it in the first place, braking the norms. Praise the NPC/PrC classed dinosaur riding Halfling nomad!
MikeJW 11-27-04, 09:07 PM	I was skeptical of Eberron but bought it anyway. It's well written and has a lot of neat ideas but at the same time I have no interest whatsoever playing in Eberron. It's just not the kind of fantasy setting I like but it is a quality product.
Turin 11-27-04, 09:55 PM	In my group we have 3 DMs... I DM a homebrew game, another fellow DM'd a Forgotten Realms game, and the third was making his first attempt at DMing (with a homebrew world) when he bought the ECS. He became very excited and chattered away about artificers and warforged and whatnot. I and the other DM sort of rolled our eyes and thought "well, it can't be as good as my campaign." A few months rolled by, and by chance both I and the other DM decided to borrow our friend's ECS to "see what the fuss is all about." Boy were we ever wrong. The FR game is now at a close and the first Eberron game is about to start for our group, with the former FR DM in the DM's chair for this one. In addition to preparing to wrap up my homebrew game in favor of my own Eberron campaign, I feel like I've become the Eberron evangelist in the group, constantly berating the other players about getting their PCs submitted to the DM as soon as possible so we can start. I think this is the first time I've ever been excited about a published campaign setting. Keith Baker, you're my hero! :love:
EarthsShadow 11-28-04, 12:46 AM	I really, really, really like Eberron so much that I am going to run a Eberron game...... using GURPS! As much as I like Eberron, it still isn't enough for me to run it using D&D, so I am converting it to GURPS.
Doomhawk 11-28-04, 01:04 AM	Eberron is awesome. It's just like so many things that I've always imagined in D&D, and as an old hand at M:tG, I enjoyed the "magic as industry" part too. Even my friend, who absolutely HATES FR for it's high-magicness and annoyingness, thinks Eberron is awesome. Oh, and on page 139 of the ECS, I noticed this line: ...Lord Darro ir'Lain, whose Knights Arcane have traditionally provided much of Aundair's military punch... Now THAT is an organization I want to know more about.
JBW 11-28-04, 01:06 AM	it's a metagame focus WotC pushed on Eberron IMO, this describes most of Eberron. I jumped into the setting, but now that the newness has waned, I'm still playing the same Exalted RPG that's been going for over a year. The players and I all considered switching to a D&D 3.5 game set in Eberron, but between the d20 rules - which most of us don't really care for - and the fact that Eberron just seems like 90% rehash (although much of it has been rehashed in a more consistant manner than in many other settings) and 10% truly new material (too much of which still seems lifted from other sources & settings), we opted to continue the Exalted game. Now I'm not saying that Eberron is horrible - I like it far better than Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk - and if I run a D&D game it is most certainly going to be set in Eberron. However, the chances of me running a D&D game are rather slim at the moment. Jay
Zathyr 11-28-04, 01:20 AM	I really, really, really like Eberron so much that I am going to run a Eberron game...... using GURPS! As much as I like Eberron, it still isn't enough for me to run it using D&D, so I am converting it to GURPS. Easy enough to do.. I've always been a fan of the "sufficiently advanced magic" idea, myself. I tried running a GURPS campaign along those lines some years back and I don't think any of the players really got what I was going for. One guy wanted to play someone magic resistant, even after I told him that this would be the equivalent of someone who, in today's society, couldn't use a phone, drive a car, or even flip a lightswitch.. In addition to the high magic, I also tend to like desert and arabic themes in an RPG, and I love crafting/tinkering. Oh yeah, and post-catastrophes - I love those. I have to say the Eberron campaign setting does a good job of tieing together some of my favorite takes on gaming, and does so very smoothly. Even so, I can't help but feel a little ... spread thin about the whole thing. Almost like it's trying to do too much, and loses some of its focus as a result. I still think it's a solid product. I guess I just don't think of it as the Holy Grail of campaign settings.
Ramses III 11-28-04, 05:23 AM	I have always preferred to play and run homebrew settings. They just look and feel more alive to me, less pre-fab and trite. Only a couple of published settings ever really appealed to me. Ravenloft was great for a roleplaying setting, but unfortunately D&D doesn't lend itself to horror -- the players know they are supposed to win, and to be the heroes of the story. Zombies will never be more than cannon fodder to us. Dark Sun was HOT -- pardon the pun, but I loved it. I didn't get to play in the setting nearly enough -- we were trying so many new things at the time, with TSR publishing new boxed campaigns all the time. Oh yeah and I liked Planescape, but never played or ran games in the setting. Eberron though... now that I've got the setting and had time to digest it... wow. I think it pulls off exactly what it tries to be -- as another poster put it, Europe between the World Wars, but more importantly, the setting for the D&D versions of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Maltese Falcon." You've got this hope, because the Last War is finally over, but there's this sense of urgency and need to live on the edge, because no one expects peace to last. There's also enough room for a DM to play with the world and make it his own without canon getting in the way. I can't run Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms, these are someone else's fantasies. Eberron, however, has captivated mine.
Wizardman 11-28-04, 06:35 AM	What I like most about Eberron is the sense that anything could happen. Peace, though firmly established, is still weak. The slightest breath from one direction could topple it- or, from another direction, could save it.
Flack Jack 11-28-04, 11:06 PM	My first impression was so, exotic so intoxicating. I vowed 3 months in advance to buy the book, but I became the 3rd in my cluster to own it. It was a massive success. Anyways I gotta say this. Eberron has dinosaurs - Deal with it. Yes halfling are famous for riding them - Deal with it. And dinosaurs are every were - Deal with it. You can by a riding lizard in Ferun - What's the difference?
Gilgiga of the Hunt 11-28-04, 11:17 PM	Gotta say I love it. At first I couldn't stand 3.5, hated the idea. I'm now forced to adapt thanks to Eberron, and loveing every moment of it. I got to play for the first time last night, and god did we have pulp. Crazed Cultests, Good Old Gumshoeing, A Chase Scene, Blatent Disregard for the Saftey of Civilains on the Watch's Part (er us), and an Explosion! Just off of that small sample I got last night I'm in love.
The White Sorcerer 11-29-04, 03:30 AM	...and an Explosion! Ahh. Nothing makes a D&D session truly succesful like an Explosion! Hint for New DMs: If your gaming session seems to be getting dull, blow something up*! *Preferably In Game rather than Out Of Game, but whatever soars your airship.
ReivaxZerai 11-29-04, 11:51 AM	I don't have much to add to what most have said, but I will say that the setting is nothing like it was hyped to be, I think. I love the monorail now, but maybe it's because I can't help but think of it as Blaine the Pain in Stephen King's Dark Tower series :) Dinosaurs, well, I loved them when I was 11 or 12, but that was when Jimmy Carter was president. Jurassic Park did a lot to kill my love of dinosaurs, and I've just never liked them in D&D. At least they get original, non-Latin names here :) The initial hype on Eberron seemed to do little avoid stereotypes. It was toted as "Indiana Jones, Dinosaurs and Robots in a world with Trains and everyone uses Magic" I was reminded with the constant pitches being thrown to producers in the movie "The Player" I.e. trying to throw out a half-dozen words used to evoke emotions, but not really tell me anything about the game. Like, Dinosaurs are something everyone has probably a very different emotion about. Halflings riding dinosaurs is still a strange picture, but I've gotten used to it. When I started to think of warforged as more akin to replicants from Bladerunner, instead of boring old robots, they started to get much more interesting to me. In general, I love the setting. It leaves so much open space for you to make the world you want using a neat box of tools. Not like FR which is so old now, it seems that every single blade of grass has a centuries old history that you can't even put any of your own feel in to without contradicting the 1,001 printed works. I think FR is a great setting to read novels set in, but I'm sick of trying to find my place there :) Big exception is Unapproachable East. Great book, and I'm using alot of it in my Eberron campaign. The Blightlord/ Children of Winter/Gloaming connection is perfect. Rashemen, barbarians, hags et al fits beautifully in my vision too. Favorite thing of Eberron so far is that it takes a lot of tired old D&D/FR/RPG stereotypes and forces you to re-evaluate.
Rinna 11-29-04, 01:17 PM	Our group had always been advocates of creating our own worlds, with our own adventures. Take ideas from stories we'd read or movies we'd seen, sure, but lift an entire adventure from a published source and you have my group giving looks like "I hope you know what you're doing." Anytime I read anything about another setting, I just hope there's something in there I can steal for use in my own campaign. I'd been in the midst of designing two worlds that I hoped to some day DM when I first read about Eberron in my Dragon magazine. At the time it was like, "Oh no, not another setting," and kind of rolled my eyes at it. But I read the articles on it anyway. None of it made any sense. But I decided I'd get the book anyway. There were some things I found interesting in the preview, and I had cash to spare. I never expected it to thrill me like it did. I barely glanced at the first few chapters, detailing the mechanics of the world, but reading the Life of the World, everything came alive. I realized this was the world I was trying to make. It had everything I was trying to put in, all that mystery and intrigue, all the magic. It's cosmology is far less stupid that the mess of planes that had been the norm. I saw the endless possibilities. This was the world I was waiting to DM. Months have gone by and my enthusiasm has only strengthened. We still haven't started my Eberron campaign, but it wasn't for lack of interest. My group is still giving me that "I hope you know what you're doing" look, but my enthusiasm has given them encouragement. For once, I'm actually excited about the prospect of DMing, something I'd never felt for that side of D&D before. Thanks, Keith. Rinna